Sustainable Drag Reducing Agents
DRA – Drug Reducing Agents
Liquids, especially crude oil, liquid natural gas, refinery products, as well as water, are transported under turbulent conditions in the pipelines.
Pump systems lose a high amount of pumping power during transport because their force dissipates due to turbulent structures that form in the flow. Due to the speed difference between the sublaminar layer and the turbulent system core, eddies are formed.
One solution to losses of pumping power during liquid transport in pipelines is the addition of certain soluble chemicals to the main stream. These chemicals, which have viscoelastic properties, interfere with turbulent structures and usually suppress eddies. In fact, they prevent eddies from absorbing more energy from the main stream.
For this, drag reducing agents and flow improvers are all those materials that reduce the friction pressure in the circulation of a fluid through a pipeline, be a pipeline transporting crude distillates or gas. The use of the drag reducing agent allows an increase in the flow with the same amount of energy, or a decrease in the pressure drop in said transport system.
The industry usually uses polymers, surfactants, or suspended solids (such as fibers), but in general polymers have been the most used because they are the most effective.
Currently, the most widely used drag reducing agents in the industry are synthetic polymers from long-chain hydrocarbons, but as such they are polluting and harmful to the environment, and represent high environmental and economic costs for the industry.
Although synthetic polymers have good mechanical properties and thermal stability against other components, they degrade very slowly, which generates a significant environmental cost. In summary, they are products with high environmental responsibility. Most of the chemicals used in the oil, gas drilling, production, extraction, refining, and transportation processes are highly polluting and to some extent contribute to the problem of climate change.
Green or sustainable drag reducing agents are a new solution to the problem, as they are biodegradable, have no toxic components or heavy metals, and come from plants and renewable materials. They are completely green and sustainable drag reducing agents, friendly to the environment.
Aloetrade America LLC offers a totally natural and sustainable new product to solve the problems generated by dragging inside the pipelines.
Our solution is a natural polymer, which offers good mechanical properties, has thermal resistance and offers a molecular weight similar to synthetic polymers, with absolute biodegradability in a short time, and which is produced based on materials that come from natural and renewable sources.
Over the past few years, Aloetrade America LLC has researched and contributed to various papers and evaluations related to the use of aloe in various processes in the extractive industries, including oil, gas, petrochemical, mining, and water treatment.
There are more than 4,000 scientific works that certify all the properties that aloe offers, carried out by prestigious universities, research centers and international laboratories in the last 50 years.
Many of those properties of aloe are found within the commercial product offered as a drag reducing agent. Our drag reducing agent is totally natural and a totally environmentally sustainable product.
Testing with the Aloe Based Product
Long chain polysaccharides obtained from natural polymers have passed different test methods that demonstrate their excellent performance as a drag reducing agent in pipeline operations in the energy industry.
In different investigations, the results indicate that both aloe and chitosan offer excellent results when used as drag reducing agents.
Successful laboratory tests have been carried out on drag reducing agents with aloe vera and chitosan, where the performance of the product has been evaluated.
In the research Drag Reduction Characteristics Using Aloe Vera Natural Mucilage: An Experimental Study, the excellent properties of aloe to reduce drag in oil transport flows are demonstrated, obtaining a drag reduction percentage of 63% and an energy saving of 60 % when aloe is used in a dosage of 400 PPM.
This study gives a clear validation to the application of our product in oil, gas and water transportation facilities.
In the research Drag Reducing Agent for Water System Using Natural Polymer (Aloe Vera), the properties of aloe to improve the flow of hydrocarbons in pipeline or pipeline transport systems are demonstrated, showing improvements of various percentages with uses of dosages between 1000 PPM at 1500 PPM.
The research Studying the Effect of Chitosan as Drag Reducing Agent in Water Flowing Systems shows the properties of chitosan as a drag agent reducer, where its polysaccharides act in a relevant way to reduce drag.
In summary, these and many other works, papers and investigations, show excellent results of the long chain polysaccharides of aloe and chitosan to reduce the drag in the transport systems of water and hydrocarbons.
For more information on the Sustainable Drag Reducing Agent visit the product page.
For more information about the Sustainable Friction Reducer visit the product page.